Hurt Skier Survives 8 Days In Snow

Charles Horton, a massage therapist and experienced outdoorsman, broke his leg April 17 on what was to have been a one-day ski trip. Eight days, later authorities found him cold, hungry — and very much alive.

"When we found him alive, everybody on the search team was just ecstatic," rescuer Anthony Mazzola told The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith.

Horton spent the time alone in the wilderness near Steamboat Springs, about 100 miles northwest of Denver, sleeping under snowcapped trees and in rudimentary shelters.

Snowplows had quit clearing the remote road used by the U.S. Forest Service where Horton's vehicle was found, said Mazzola, a sergeant with the Rio Blanco County Sheriff's Office.

On day No. 3, the experienced outdoorsman began using his elbows to drag himself across the frozen ground in an attempt to get to his car three miles away.

It wasn't until Sunday that longtime friend and landlord Johnny Walker returned from a vacation and found Horton's cat was unfed, his plants needed water and there was a slew of phone messages from people who were wondering why Horton had missed massage appointments.

"My heart just sank," Walker said. "It was going to be a horrible loss."

Walker called the Rio Blanco County Sheriff's Office. After a one-hour search, rescue workers found Horton early Monday morning.

Horton, 55, of Steamboat Springs, was dehydrated and suffering from minor frostbite and mild hypothermia. He was hospitalized in fair condition Tuesday.

"I can't wait to listen to his story," said Mazzola. "When I spoke to him in the hospital, I didn't want to wear him out too much by asking too many questions."

Horton hadn't told anyone when he expected to return, and almost everyone who knew him was out of town, his friend, Mary O'Brien, said.

"His co-workers were gone, I was gone, his girlfriend was gone. We were all missing the fact that he was missing," she said. "It was a mad mess."

O'Brien said Horton spent the first two nights under a tree, sleeping on boughs and building a fire to keep warm. Temperatures dipped into the 20s at midweek when a cold front moved through, but little snow fell, National Weather Service meteorologist Dave Nadler said.

On Tuesday, he decided to start toward his car. Crawling on his back, supporting himself with his elbows and dragging his broken leg behind, he covered about 200 yards in 10 hours, O'Brien said.

"He decided it was taking too much energy to move, so he decided he was staying put," she said.

Rescuers found him about two miles from their command center, barely able to speak. Searchers on snowmobiles would periodically stop, shut down their engines and blow whistles. On one stop, they heard Horton blowing his whistle in response.

"We all said that if anybody could (survive), it would be him," O'Brien said. "He had the personality and the skill. He's not the type that would panic."